“Yardsticks” for Victim Sensitive Process: Principle-Based Standards for Gauging the Integrity of Restorative Justice Process.

Source: (2007) Victims and Offenders. 2(3):289-301.

For almost two decades restorative justice practices have demonstrated positive
impacts on crime victim satisfaction when compared to court and other adversarial
processes. Although restorative justice practice has by no means addressed the
myriad needs of the majority of crime victims, researchers and policy makers have puzzled
about how to interpret these generally positive findings. We suggest that remaining
difficulties in interpretation and application of findings are due largely to (1) the
lack of clear standards for gauging the integrity, or “restorativeness,” of interventions
and (2) the failure to articulate logical mechanisms (i.e., intervention theories) that
connect practices to immediate and intermediate outcomes, and these outcomes to long
term changes in the well-being of victims, offenders, and communities. This article
focuses primarily on the first problem, defining the “independent variable” in restorative
practices aimed at having an impact on crime victims. Using qualitative data
from a national case study, a principle-based approach to evaluation with implications
for intervention theory and both input and outcome measures in future research is proposed
and briefly illustrated.(author’s abstract)